


Daphne Gets a Dog

by Xie



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-19
Updated: 2007-11-19
Packaged: 2018-12-26 18:00:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12064161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xie/pseuds/Xie
Summary: A heartwarming Brian and Justin Thanksgiving story.





	Daphne Gets a Dog

  
Author's notes: Written for teary_eyed2, who asked for schmoop without porn. I took that as a personal challenge and thus, this is the most family-friendly Xie!fic ever written.  


* * *

**Daphne Gets a Dog**  
By Xie

Daphne sat down at the table, two coffees in her hands. “I’m getting a dog.”

Justin picked up his coffee, blew on the surface, took a sip, and contemplated her face over the rim. “Bad idea.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“They shed, they bark, they get hair on your clothes, they pee in the house, and they need to be walked even when it’s dark, cold, snowing, raining, or 102 degrees in the shade.”

Daphne sipped her coffee and looked thoughtful. “I have a fenced yard, I have air conditioning and heat, I have an umbrella, dogs can be trained not to bark or pee in the house, and I can live with a little hair on my clothes.”

“Who’s getting hair on your clothes?” Brian dropped into the seat next to Justin, took his coffee away from him, and drank half the cup.

“Hey! Get your own.” Justin took it back, glaring.

Daphne laughed. “I’m getting a dog.”

Brian nodded. “Good idea.”

Justin ignored him and got up to get more coffee.

“Justin didn’t think it was a good idea. He said a dog would be too much trouble.”

Brian snorted. “Justin lives with me, and he thinks a dog is too much trouble?”

Daphne shrugged. “I’ve always wanted a dog. My parents wouldn’t let me have one, and now that I have a place with a yard, it seemed like the perfect time.” She took a sip of coffee. “It’s that or a baby.”

Brian choked on the last of Justin’s coffee. “I’ll take you to the shelter myself.”

Justin re-appeared, and put three cups of coffee down on the table.

“It’s good to see your years as a bus boy weren’t a complete waste.” Brian flinched. “Hey! You kicked me!”

“Did I?” Justin asked as he slid back into his seat. “Oooops.”

Then he turned to Daphne, his back to Brian. “So what’s this about going to the shelter?”

“I told Brian I was either getting a dog or having a baby, and he seemed to think the dog was the right choice.”

Justin just stared at her. “You’re scary.”

Brian gave a sharp laugh.

Daphne smiled. “Thanks.”  
_________________________________________

Thanksgiving morning, Brian was lying on the bed watching Justin get dressed. First he bent over and pulled on his socks. Then he bent over and pulled on his underwear. Then he bent over and pulled on his pants. Brian was trying to come up with another way to get him to bend over when Justin glanced over his shoulder.

“Stop looking at my ass, and get dressed. We’re going to be late.”

Brian glanced at the clock. “We don’t have to be at Deb’s for dinner until 2. It’s only 11.”

“We’re stopping at Daphne’s to meet her new dog.”

Brian didn’t say anything, and Justin pulled his shirt out of the closet. He faced Brian while he buttoned it. “Get up.”

“She really did it?”

Justin nodded.

“We can’t go see the dog. It’ll get hair all over our clothes.” Brian looked distressed.

“Exactly. That’s why I said she shouldn’t get one. But you had to volunteer to drive her to the shelter yourself. We’re lucky she only got one.”

Brian blanched, then brightened. “A baby would have been worse. Babies throw up on you.”

“You can’t just walk into a shelter and get a baby. They take nine months. We’d have had time to move to another continent or something. I hear Australia’s really nice.” Justin pulled his sweater over his head. “Get. Up.”

Brian groaned, but got up and went into the bathroom. Justin heard the shower come on, and went and stood in the door watching Brian soap himself up. He considered getting undressed and taking a second shower, then sighed. He’d promised Daphne they’d be there before Thanksgiving dinner at Deb’s.

Brian bitched and moaned all the way into the city. No, they weren’t taking Justin’s car. No, Justin couldn’t drive the Corvette. No, they couldn’t bring the 1999 Dalla Valle Maya Cabernet to go with the prime rib.

“I looked it up. The wine website said you should drink Cabernet Sauvignon with prime rib.” Justin’s lower lip had that stubborn pout. Brian cursed the internet.

“Fine. Go grab a few bottles. But don’t drop any. They’re worth six hundred bucks a pop.”

Justin paled. “Oh. Well, maybe there’s something else?”

Brian snorted and went down to the wine cellar and grabbed three bottles of slightly more accessible Cab.

“How much is this one worth?” Justin asked as he slipped the bottles carefully down by his feet on the passenger side of the Corvette.

“One-sixth what the Maya’s worth.” Brian pulled out the driveway while Justin planted his feet carefully on the bottles so they wouldn’t roll around.

Brian pulled into Daphne’s driveway with a squeal of his tires. Justin sighed and got out of the car, gently closing the door so Brian wouldn’t have to come over and make sure he hadn’t accidentally injured it.

When they got to the door of Daphne’s house – cottage, really, Brian thought. And cute. If he used that word, which he didn’t – she opened the door and stood there grinning. In her arms was a medium-sized, scruffy-coated, tan dog with bright eyes and a fiercely wagging short tail. “Hi guys! Happy Thanksgiving. This is Randy.”

Justin’s face broke into a huge smile, and he was throwing the ball for the dog in the yard with Daphne within three and a half minutes of meeting him. The little dog raced after it, barking happily, grabbed the ball, threw it in the air himself, grabbed it again, and ran back to Justin and Daphne.

He did this approximately 40 times before Brian, a long-suffering look on his face, joined them in the yard. “Are you two ever going to grow up? I’m almost positive, appearances and behavior to the contrary, that you’re both somewhere in your late 20s.”

“Brian doesn’t like to pin that down too much due to the fact that you and I being 28 means he’s FORTY,” Justin informed Daphne without looking at Brian.

She laughed. “You know, Brian, in dog years you’re only a little over 5 years old.”

Randy chose that moment to drop his ball hopefully at Brian’s feet. Then he sat there, tail thumping, tongue hanging out, eyes fixed on Brian’s face.

Brian sighed and poked out a foot to push the ball over to Justin.

Randy pushed it back. With his nose.

Daphne laughed. Justin laughed. Brian sighed, bent down, picked up the ball, and threw it all the way to the end of Daphne’s very large yard. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Eventually Randy tired of the game, and took the ball up on the deck. He stood at the back door, and let it fall at his feet.

When Daphne opened the door, he grabbed the ball in his mouth, trotted inside with it, and lay down in front of the fireplace. He dropped the ball between his front paws, and tucked his chin protectively over it.

Daphne walked them out to the car, and Brian picked tan dog hairs off his pants leg with a pained expression on his face. Justin hugged Daphne, and then got in the car just in time for Brian to peel out of the driveway, heading for Debbie’s house.

After Justin called Brian an asshole and got his seatbelt fastened, he shifted in his seat to face him. “That wasn’t as bad as you thought, was it?”

Brian shrugged. “Except for the hair on my pants and dog drool on my Prada shoes and the fact that Daphne’s lost her mind, no.”

Justin didn’t say anything.

Brian glanced at him. “What’s wrong?”

Justin shrugged and looked out the window. Brian contemplated slowing down just enough to shove Justin out of the car without actually putting his life at risk, then decided just to ignore him.

Which would have been easier to do if Justin weren’t shifting and sighing and drumming his fingers incessantly on this thigh.

Brian slammed on the brakes at the curb in front of Debbie’s house, but didn’t turn off the engine. “Before we go in and spend this day of national gratitude with our chosen alternative extended family, after I have risked life, limb, and wardrobe to indulge your hag’s thankfully misdirected maternal impulses, would you please do me the favor of explaining why you’re sulking?”

Justin glared at Brian. “I’m not sulking. I’m thinking.”

“About… what?”

Justin didn’t answer right away. Brian mentally counted down from 10. He figured by the time he got to 4, Justin would have spilled.

At 6, Justin bit his lip.

At 5, he let it go.

At 4, he said, “I’m jealous of the dog.”

Brian tried to make that make sense. He failed. “Do you mean you want a dog?” He tried to keep the horror out of his voice, but didn’t succeed.

Justin shook his head. “Of course not.”

Brian looked at Justin, perplexed. “You mean,” he said slowly, “that you are jealous of the dog?”

“I think,” Justin answered, “that I said that. So yes.”

“You think Daphne loves the dog more than she loves you?”

He nodded sadly.

Brian put his head down on the steering wheel. “God, you’re insane.”

“Brian. I’ve been with you for 12 years. Of course I’m insane. That has nothing to do with it. It’s just, I was the only one Daphne lived with. I was her best friend. Now it’s Randy.”

“Daphne’s had six boyfriends in the last five years. You haven’t been jealous of any of them. And one of them was hot.”

Justin snorted. “As if I cared what guy she was fucking.” He sighed. “This is serious though. She really loves this dog.”

Brian stared at him. “I’m sure if you would go over there with a ball in your mouth and wagged your ass she’d love you just as much as she loves Randy.”

Justin got out of the car, grabbed the bottles of wine, and headed for the house. Brian cut the engine and got out, but before he caught up with him, Debbie had opened the door and let him inside.

After dinner, Brian followed Justin out to the backyard. They stood there quietly, and after a while Brian noticed Justin was shivering a little. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder, bent down and put his mouth right at Justin’s ear. “You’ll always be her best friend.”

Justin turned his head a little. “I know.”

“And I promise never to love a dog more than I love you.”

Justin laughed. “I was honestly not losing any sleep over that.”

“Good.” Brian kissed him, and when they broke apart, Justin nestled his head on Brian’s shoulder.

Brian put his hand in Justin’s hair, and gave it a little tug. “Although you do get hair on my clothes.” He looked down at Justin, who was staring at him, amused. “And you’re kind of cute when you wag your tail. And…” Brian cleared his throat. “You’re my best friend.”

The house blocked most of the light from the street, and there was only a dim glow from the porch light. But it was enough for the neighbor walking his dog in the alley behind Debbie’s yard to see the silhouette of two men kissing against the side of the house.


End file.
